Just before Turkey Day last week, one unhappy Xbox 360 owner was so disappointed in his copy of Halo 3 he decided to take his gripe to Federal Court and is suing Microsoft and Bungie.

Randy Nunez who filed the suit in Southern District of California, claims that his copy of Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 consistently causes the console to “crash”, “freeze”, or “lock-up” while the game is playing, according to the court filed complaint. As compensation for his trouble, Nunez is seeking 5 million dollars in damages.

Having not heard of any widespread complaints of Halo 3 across the Internet, it will be interesting to see if Mr. Nunez can make good on his claim about Halo 3 being faulty on the 360 and cash-in on his complaint. Guess we will have to see if the suit actually goes anywhere or if Bungie or Microsoft tosses Nunez a bone.

Reader Comments

vmarr0y0

This guy is dumb… and I hope he reads this. How stupid can you be to expect to get five million from Bungie/Microsoft… typically if this is a known issue, you will hear about it on the news… i have a 360 and Halo 3 and have never had a problem… this is just another case of ignorant people

hodar

I didn’t like my Big Mac … it was cold…. the only thing that will alleviate my soul is $5 Million bucks.

I don’t like my jeans, they make my butt look fat … I need $5 Million bucks.

I see periodic game stutter on my XBox …. give me $5 Million bucks.

How about a “Gee, Mr. Nunez … sorry about your dissatisfaction with our product … here’s your moey back.”? as a reply. The sad thing is that Microsoft will likely pay Mr. Nunez some sum of money to drop the case; thus encouraging the rest of the dissatisfied masses to press suit in the hopes that they too can retire at the age of 25.

davethejackal

About 17 years ago my old boss (a keen gliding enthusiast) told me that the US glider manufacturing had all but killed off by litigation.

When you hear about $5 million lawsuits for a dodgy computer game it comes as no surprise that, almost 2 decades later, no one makes anything any more in the states and insurance premiums are soaring through the roof.

So … now it’s one of the US’s few remaining industries (software development) to bite the dust? I’ve yet to know a game to be released bug free, what will this mean to the industry if Nunez is successful?

Sure M$ should pay up for any problems they cause, but this is just a joke. $5 million for a broken computer game? Seriously? It’s a joke. Let’s hope no one takes them to task over the bugs in Windows…

Has anyone else had problems similar to the above, is the game that buggy or is this guy just talking out of his a$$?

darkstar107

of COURSE its going to crash…its Microsoft…

warthan58

Wow, talk about “no life”. Bungie/MS should counter-suit this guy for being a little wuss.

asdfasdfasd

Talk about frivolous…I ask has the person suing tried to purchase a new copy of the game yet?, contacted Bungie/MS?, tried to buy a new XBOX?…

You have to try and fix the issue before suing and at that you also have to do that without frivolous spending. I ask why 5 million why not 500 million because both are ridiculous. I mean what is the 5 million for damages to his member because when the xbox was down all he did was flog himself, or maybe when the xbox was down he worked out and he is suing becuase he is in better shape which has caused him to loss interest in his fat wife?

jonlgeek

I’m surprised someone has sued MS over Halo3. They should have sued them for the crap that is the 360. MS even admitted that all xboxes had a design flaw in their chassis that causes it to overheat internally, thus causing the RROD. Why hasn’t anyone sued them for that? It has caused a very high replacement rate for their console. Reports are around 33% of all consoles sold. If xbox owners were any smarter, they would ban together and form a class-action lawsuit against MS for selling a self-admitted, known defective product.

darkstar107

I see where you’re going with that jonlgeek. But its quite possible that there has been no lawsuit over that because everyone it’s happened to just expects that from microsoft so its not coming as a surprise. This guy obviously doesn’t know Microsoft’s history :)

hodar

Why is Microsoft being singled out? Why not sue McDonalds over a cold or stale Big Mac? Ford over just about any of their typical cars? Whatever happened to “I want my money back”?

Product re-calls happen. They are NOT planned for (trust me, it costs $1ea to fix in the factory, and this turns into $50 each in the distribution channel, and $200 in the customer domain). If this was a major fault (ie. overheating) it would have shown up in the 100 to 1,500 proto-type and Beta Builds. It didn’t; because this is an atypical defect (ie. you need LARGE numbers for this latent defect to emerge).

As a design engineer, I WANT to find the defect before I go to production. Why? Have you ever explained to a VP of Operations why your in-house tests failed to discover a latent defect? Trust me, it ain’t fun.

When a jerk pulls a stunt like this; companies respond by making it more difficult to PROVE that your product has a defect.

asdfasdfasd

JonlGeek:

What does MS do for the RROD people, they take back the xbox360 fix it and ship it back free of charge. What are you going to sue for? Damages? Lost time playing? Come on get real…the RROD is not life threatening, does not cause emotional distress (which is BS anywho)…they fix them and that is good enough.

MS has since fixed the issue and is no longer selling a known defective product.

Guess people want free money so they claim large damages for what. I ask what are this kids damages?

Shit happens people and it really shows the person you are if you start suing over split milk or a little boo boo.

stigma

i heard about this…this guy, being the dumbass that he is, probly put the disk in upside down, or thought it would be cool to tip his 360 up on its side while he was playing! this guy is a moron! i mean, c’mon! 5 million dollars in damages? the 360 alone costs 370 while halo 3 is only 60! im not saying this guy should get any money at all, be he could use it for his friggin special ed classes!

jonlgeek

asdfasdfasd,

MS has admitted that their 360 had a problem and only until recently has it been fixed with a redesign or maybe because they have shrunk their die to 65nm thus reducing the heat signature of the chip. But what about all the loyal, early adopters of the 360 who have to go through the inconvenient process of packing up their product and shipping it to MS to have a refurbished one sent back to them? I have read several forums say where people have had to send back 5 or 6 consoles due to the same RROD. Can you imagine the wasted time and inconvenience to do that? I don’t care if their warranty was lifetime, I would not buy a known defect product knowing that I might have to go through all this trouble. On top of that, the wait time for return shipment was anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks. Times 5 consoles, that’s 10 weeks min, 30 weeks max. 30 weeks!!! That’s 7 months of gaming, GONE! Sorry, NO THANKS! Sure, this “problem” does not potentially cause physical harm, but it could render the product completely useless. And they know that each machine could do this because all machines have the same flaw, that should result in MS giving users a replacement of some sort. With the way this design flaw is, it could happen 3yrs later AFTER the warranty runs out. Then what? You’re SOL, that’s what.

asdfasdfasd

jonlgeek:

“I have read several forums say where people have had to send back 5 or 6 consoles due to the same RROD. Can you imagine the wasted time and inconvenience to do that?”

This again is not the norm…

Of the 15 people I know that have 360 1 sent it back and has never had to again. Tell me 1 person you know that has had to send theirs back multiple times (personally know).

OMG 7 months of gaming. The RROD happens from the unit over heating if they did not play so much already it NEVER HAPPENS imagine that. So 7 months of gaming gone is a good break to go outside and do something better with your life.

Within three years (Warranty for early adopters ended up at 5 BTW), early adopters will be adopting the next new system.

You kiddies bitch to much about meaningless stuff. Stop playing your 360 for hours on hours and it WILL NOT DIE.

JasperFett

Gee darkstar, sounds like you are a sony fanboy. Sony’s had their share of problems too. No console is problem free,unless you live in a perfect world.